Canterbury University food poisoning case: Food safety watchdog tight-lipped on penalties

The food safety watchdog will not say if it will impose any penalties on the catering company responsible for an outbreak of food poisoning at Canterbury University.

More than 100 students became unwell in November after eating a chicken souvlaki dinner provided at the Unihall and Ilam Apartments.

It resulted in queues for the toilets and some people vomiting from windows because they could not make it in time.

The University of Canterbury Students' Association runs UniLodge's Maidstone Road kitchen, which provides catering at both halls of residence through its OnCampus division.

New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said the bacteria Clostridium perfringens was identified as the cause, after it was found in faecal samples from students who became ill.

"Really careful work has been done with the halls themselves - their records - with the National Public Health Service and with New Zealand Food Safety, and all the evidence confirms the source of the problem was the preparation of chicken, the chilling of it and the reheating of it.

"There's very clear evidence [the meal] was quite contaminated with a particular bacteria that generates the symptoms we saw."

Arbuckle said the kitchen had stopped doing this form of preparation.

"That will eliminate the sort of risk that produced the problem. My understanding is they also have been reviewing generally their procedures and their processes as you would after an incident like this."

He would not say whether any penalties might be imposed.

"There are certainly penalties, consequences under the Food Act ... a range of charges that can be put through the courts and they can give rise to fines in various sentencing outcomes, there's a good range of options there, in where the circumstances warrant it.

"I'm really not at liberty to talk about what might come from this incident but suffice it to say we will see this one through to final conclusions in what should be done in response to the incident."

Arbuckle said students could be assured that food safety officers had fully inspected the kitchen and found no evidence of immediate and ongoing food safety risk at the halls.

"If we thought students were at risk we would take further actions to prevent it."

Arbuckle had a message for businesses which catered to large numbers, such as university halls of residence.

"[They] need to make sure that where they prepare and cook food in bulk they have good processes in place to make sure risk is properly managed.

"In particular, cooling and reheating must be carefully managed to prevent pathogens from growing, and particular care must be taken when keeping food for later service."

University of Canterbury Students' Association acting president Caleb Banks said the association was disappointed by what had occurred.

"Our executive continues to work with senior management who are responsible for the delivery of catering at University Hall to ensure that the highest hygiene standards are achieved at all times.

"We have been assured that they continue to cooperate fully with MPI's investigation and, while the investigation continues, no further public comment will be made.

"We are pleased to hear that our students affected by the outbreak have recovered and received the welfare and academic support they require. The wellbeing of our students remains our priority."

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